The 2010 Census is at serious risk of massive cost increases and delays caused by problems with a contract to develop handheld computers that the Census Bureau plans to use to collect data.
Later in the article is this line:
"So serious is the crisis that if it is not dealt with immediately, it could threaten the integrity of the 2010 count," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in his opening statement at the hearing. "We now find ourselves facing a situation in which we might have to revert to conducting the census entirely by paper -- no differently than it was done in the 19th century."
I sincerely hope we don't revert to early 19th century censuses. Can you imagine having only counts of the number of people within certain age groups by sex? As a researcher, I'd prefer the early 20th century model if we have to go back to written censuses. Instead of check-marks for radios, they could have check-marks for Blu-Ray DVDs, iPhones, or iPods.
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